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Quotes by Philosopher
"In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."
17
"Love alone can unite living beings so as to complete and fulfill them... for it alone joins them by what is deepest in themselves. All we need is to imagine our ability to love developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth."
17
"Freedom, "that terrible word inscribed on the chariot of the storm," is the motivating principle of all revolutions. Without it, justice seems inconceivable to the rebel's mind. There comes a time, however, when justice demands the suspension of freedom. Then terror, on a grand or small scale, makes its appearance to consummate the revolution. Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being. But one day nostalgia takes up arms and assumes the responsibility of total guilt; in other words, adopts murder and violence."
17
"I...think it much more supportable to be always alone, than never to be so."
17
"Two quite opposite qualities equally bias our minds - habits and novelty."
17
"The significance of a man is not in what he attains but rather in what he longs to attain."
17
"To keep the air fresh among words is the secret of verbal cleanliness."
17
"No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better."
17
"Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God."
17
"Naturally, I always place my word over anyone else's simply because I know why I said what I said."
17
"The great law of culture: Let each become all that he was created capable of being."
17
"Boston is a moral and intellectual nursery always busy applying first principles to trifles."
17
"One basis for life and another basis for science is a priori a lie."
17
"In architecture the pride of man his triumph over gravitation his will to power assume a visible form. Architecture is a sort of oratory of power by means of forms."
17
"To say 'we' and mean 'I' is one of the most recondite insults."
17
"I am your earth if you want me to be. I am your sky if you want me to be. I am your sun if you want me to be. I am your world if you want me to be. I am your universe if you want me to be."
17
"It is not difficult for an unwise mother quite unintentionally to centre the heterosexual feelings of a young son upon herself, and it is true that, if this is done, the evil consequences pointed out by Freud will probably ensue. This is, however, much less likely to occur if the mother's sexual life is satisfying to her, for in that case she will not look to her child for a type of emotional satisfaction which ought to be sought only from adults. The parental impulse in its purity is an impulse to care for the young, not to demand affection from them, and if a woman is happy in her sexual life she will abstain spontaneously from all improper demands for emotional response from her child."
17
"Emotion is always multiplied in the art of a person who doesn't really show much emotion. It once expanded deep within his hidden soul, and following the downplay his audience is blown away."
17
"There is another alphabet, whispering from every leaf, singing from every river, shimmering from every sky."
17
"There is no born lover, There is no born Don Juan, For we are all lovers."
17
"Who can be close to you without the Divine Light of his heart?"
17
"Don't downgrade your dreams to upgrade your relationships."
17
"In worthy teaching, all things are related."
17
"Step by step a mountain is conquered."
17
"Things, relationship, and ideas are so transparently impermanent, we are ever made unhappy by them...Things are impermanent, they wear out and are lost; relationship is constant friction and death awaits; ideas and beliefs have no stability, no permanency. We seek happiness in them and yet do not realize their impermanency. So sorrow becomes our constant companion and overcoming it our problem."
17
"What sort of adventures?' I asked him, astonished. 'All sorts, Monsieur. Getting on the wrong train. Stopping in an unknown city. Losing your briefcase, being arrested by mistake, spending the night in prison. Monsieur, I believe the word adventure could be defined: an event out of the ordinary without being necessarily extraordinary."
17
"Grades really cover up failure to teach."
17
"An apple only falls far from its tree when carried away by divine winds."
17
"No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, can ever compel the soul of a person to believe or to disbelieve."
17
"The coward wretch whose hand and heart Can bear to torture aught below, Is ever first to quail and start From the slightest pain or equal foe."
17
"Whatever deceives men seems to produce a magical enchantment."
17
"Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is."
17
"Thirty spokesShare one hub.Make the nothing therein appropriate, and you will have the use of the cart."
17
"Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter."
17
"I would believe only in a God that knows how to Dance."
17
"We will never be more that we have been destined to be!"
17
"You might be an introvert if you were ready to go home before you left the house."
17
"Teaching others, he corrected himself."
17
"The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself."
17
"Love has never been conquered, not even by the greatest army."
17
"Let there be spaces in your togetherness."
17
"The worst thing about being concise with people is the game of puzzle you've made them play."
17
"The chemist who can extract from his heart's elements compassion respect longing patience regret surprise and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love."
17
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